German Bureaucracy

I'll go ahead and apologize for the complaining upfront. I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, and I'd much rather it be something feel-good and Christmassy, but I have to recount my frustrating and bizarre morning.

Frustrating - Woke up at 5:45 to go to the office where I apply to get my Visa. To give you some background, this office was on strike for over a month, so instead of being able to email to set up an appointment, you just have to show up when they open and hope you get seen. So I waited with two friends for an hour and a half in line, only to be told when I got to the window that they weren't handing out any more "Student Numbers" for the day (still not sure what that means). Apparently, one of my friends got the last one, so my options were either: 1. Leave my passport with them until Jan. 7th (uh, no) or 2. Get up the same time tomorrow and do it again...thankfully since I'm leaving the EU on Thursday, I've got another 90 days to take care of it when I get back. Moral of the story? "German efficiency" is something that should only be mentioned in car ads.

Bizarre - After getting back from the early morning adventure, I decided a nap would help my mood. It took me a while to fall back asleep, but shortly after I did, I was awakened by knocking and strange voices coming from outside my bedroom door (I have a double room, so they had already come into the main part). Disoriented and confused, I was barely able to put some clothes on before a man and woman barged in mumbling something about needing to check my heater. It's not broken so I couldn't quite figure out what was going on. When I asked my roommate later what it was about, she just said nonchalantly, "Oh, everyone gets their heater randomly inspected at least twice a year...I guess it was our turn." Not trying to be sarcastic but too dumbfounded for a better reply, all I could say was, "Oh...I guess that makes sense."